Menendez's Estin Thiele ready to join St. Johns County's college kicker assembly line

Will Brown

Friday

Jan 26, 2018 at 8:56 PMJan 26, 2018 at 8:56 PM

Will Brown caught up with Menendez senior Estin Thiele for a kicking contest.

Coaches may not always spell his name right, but when one can kick a football as well as Estin Thiele, who cares?

The Menendez senior is the latest product of St. Johns County’s assembly line of collegiate placekickers. Thiele will become the first Menendez kicker to play college football after he announces his college selection in the coming weeks. Georgia Southern and Troy University are among those who have expressed interest. Division II national finalist West Florida has as well.

The All-County and All-First Coast selection has been three-year starting kicker for the Falcons football team and a four-year letterman for the soccer team.

As a junior Thiele showed he had the leg strength to kick field goals from beyond 45 yards, but not always the accuracy — converting 4 of 9 field-goal attempts and 22 of 25 extra points. As a senior, he not only displayed power and accuracy, but his kicks had height, which is something not frequently seen in high school, especially for kickers who kick directly off the grass. This season he converted 11 of 13 field-goal attempts and put 35 percent of his kickoffs into the end zone.

Earlier this month, Thiele competed in the Kohl's 2018 National Senior Challenge in Orlando. The competition brought scores of the best high school kickers, punters and long snappers to Central Florida for an opportunity to showcase their skills before national signing day, Feb. 7.

While he has yet to make a final decision on where he’ll play in college, Thiele is eager for the next level.

The Record recently caught up with Thiele.

Q: From Caleb Sturgis to Cairo Santos, Ryan Federico, Cole Leininger, Jeff Whitaker and more, this area’s pedigree is such that the All-County kicker almost always has an opportunity to play college football.

A: “(In my) junior year, a bunch of colleges were coming in for (offensive lineman) Connor Robbins — he used to play for us — a bunch of colleges came in for him. They came down and talked to me and said ‘Hey, we’ll come back next year and start talking to you.’ I said ‘All right, sweet.’”

Q: How did you improve your field-goal percentage this season?

A: “Practicing and being repeatable and being out there kicking all the time.”

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